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WordPress has announced that it’ll soon ensure every site built on its platform uses encrypted HTTPS as standard, in line with efforts being made across the rest of the Web.

HTTPS is already available if you have a ‘.wordpress.com’ site but this is now being rolled out to custom domains that only use the WordPress backend.

WordPress is the most popular CMS system on the Web, used by over a quarter of all websites, so this move represents a huge shift over to a more secure internet.

This will immediately apply to any new sites created using a custom domain, with existing websites built on WordPress gradually being upgraded. WordPress will automatically redirect any requests that use HTTP to the new HTTPS version.

This is no doubt prompted by the news that Google has started favoring secure over non-secure domains, but the tech giant recently highlighted that many major sites, including many of its own products, are yet to make the switch.

Indeed CNN, eBay and the New York Times, were all flagged by Google for lacking HTTPS as standard, and are all notable users of WordPress.

WordPress has been working with the Let’s Encrypt project to help it automate the certification process for sites that use its platform.

WordPress HTTPS

The European Space Agency wants to build a village on the Moon.

The head of the multinational agency, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, said the village would “serve science, business, tourism and even mining purposes.”

In a video interview posted on the agency’s website, Woerner said a permanent lunar base is the next logical step in space exploration.

He said the village could replace the International Space Station in the future. The ISS has been continuously occupied since 2000. It was originally set to be decommissioned by 2020, but its operation has been extended through 2024.

The agency said it could take 20 years before the technology is ready to make the Moon village happen.

Woerner said the agency could use the Moon’s natural resources to build the village, instead of bringing materials from Earth. Structures and parts of buildings could be 3D-printed using robots and rovers.

“We don’t need a big amount of funding at the beginning…we can start with a small landing mission, which many countries are already planning,” he said.

Having a permanent human presence on the Moon could be risky, because of cosmic radiation, micrometeorites, and extreme temperatures which can range from 253 degrees F (123 C) to minus 243 F (minus 153 C).

But Woerner said these risks could be minimized by picking the right locations on the Moon. “If we go into the shadow on the moon, we’d have places where we don’t have the radiation…at the south pole, which has permanent darkness, where we can find water,” he said.

The Outer Space Treaty, which was signed in 1967, says that no nation could claim ownership of the Moon. The European Space Agency wants the Moon village to be an international that would combine the capabilities of different space-faring nations.

Some countries might also be interested in mining for rare earth elements and helium on the Moon, he said.